The Advanced Fire Service Interface

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The Fire Safety Systems Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology sponsored a workshop at the Fire and Rescue Conference to examine the future of fire annuciator panels. The intent to provide information of direct benefit to fire department operations and incident management, faster and more reliably. This workshop presented two aspects of the project. The first was an opportunity for the fire service to guide the development of a consistent set of symbols and display characteristics which will work over a range of systems from high resolution displays in fire command centers, to terminals in vehicles, to handheld displays. The second is gathering information about the fire that is useful in making command decisions such as fireground tactics and resource allocation (that the military calls tactical decision aids) that improve both operational efficiency and firefighter safety.

We are working with a task group of the National Fire Alarm Code to develop a chapter for NFPA 72 that will result in a consensus on display icons and operation consistent across all manufacturer's fire alarm panels. The specification would also include a consistent interface to fire service controls for voice communication systems, real time status information on elevators and smoke control systems, and potentially the location of building occupants.

A prototype display was developed as a staring point, based on two "focus groups" organized through the IAFC. This workshop will focus on the current status of the code process, the prototype display and will provide an opportunity for broader input so that the resulting display will meet the needs of the fire service.

With the help of NFPA and their Fire Service Section we are collecting input via a questionnaire that has been sent to the major fire service organizations. Copies of the questionnaire will be available at the workshop.

To see the presentation, please click here.

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